Sunday, December 31, 2006

Great news.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Donkey Poker

Played a little HORSE on Fulltilt last night. Played with a bunch of Donkeys that couldn't even spell Poker! I intendedon playing for 30 minutes while I was riding my exercise bike. Just wanted to kill some time playing .50-1.00 HORSE. Iwas on tilt right away. Couldn't win a hand for my life. There was a donkey who had $40 at my table that was playingevery hand to the river. He was winning in the craziest ways. He was up to $90 in 25 minutes! At .50-1.00 that is hardto do. I told my wife that I would bet he would be broke within an hour. Turns out I was wrong he lost $90 in 20minutes! How can you lose $90 at .50-1.00 HORSE? I can't even begin to tell you how bad the play was. He had a j-10-QOn fifth street in RAZZ. Yet he was calling bets drawing dead against his opponents A-3-5! This player wasn't the onlydonkey, there were 3 more that didn't have a clue how to play any of the legs in HORSE, other then HE. I guess this iswhat TV Poker has brought us. I got crushed in this game. If I didn't have to work today I know with time I would havegot it back and more. Oh well there is always another soft HORSE game on FullTilt. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Thursday, December 28, 2006

HORSE on FullTilt.

Played some $1-2 HORSE on Fulltilt last night. The plays I see there are unbelievably bad. I won't even tell you aboutthe Razz part of it. You have to see it to believe it. People calling raises when they have to be way behind. Such ason 4th street I have A-5 showing and raised with it. One person had bet and I raised. Next person with Q-10 called bothbets cold! Back to the hand I wanted to tell you about. We were in the Stud part and I get dealt rolled up 6s! Ilimped in and 3 of us went to forth street. A super aggressive player with a queen as his door card pairs it on 4th. Iknow he would have raised on 3rd if he started with 2 queens so I was still good here. He bets and I raise him to getthe other player out. Loved my hand but the other 6 was out and I knew I could make a lot from this guy heads up. On5th he catches a blank and still bets out. I raise and we wind up capping it. At this point I am worried he really has3 queens. On 6th we both catch blanks. He bets I call. On the river I pair up to make a full house sixes full ofthrees. He bets I raise and we cap it. I win a huge pot. What did he have to cap it on the river you ask? 2 pairqueens and tens. How could they be good? When he paired his queens I kept raising? What hands could he beat? I can'tfigure it out. I had a very profitable night at this table. I highly recommend the HORSE games on Fulltilt. I don'teven want to tell you how bad they play the OM8 part! Good luck at the tables. Tony

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

$20-40 at the Borgata.

I finally have some time to post about our trip to the Borgata in Atlantic City, from this weekend. We both gave $20-40a try with good results. I only played for an hour, lost my nerve. Knew I wasn't playing well being the stakes werehigher then usual for me. That saying about scared money not winning in Poker is so true. Here is an example of missedbets by me. I had 2 Queens and raised pre-flop. Only the Big and small blinds called my raise. Flop came all rags,they checked and I bet. Both of them called. A king fell on the turn. They checked and I checked behind. Another ragfell on the river and they both checked. Normally in $10-20 or $5-10 this is an automatic bet for me. Being theychecked twice odds are my 2 queens are good. I checked behind and won the pot with my 2 queens. One player told me hehad A-10 for a pair of tens. He would have called my river bet. I hate when I play too cautious. There were otherhands like this. So I moved to a $10-20 game soon after this. My wife did great. She left the table up $575 after 2hours. We then got seated together at one of the loosest $10-20 games I have ever been at. We had on average 7 peopleseeing the flop. Some hands would be 6 players in for 3 bets pre-flop. The hands that were winning were total garbage. It would be like tens and fours winning a pot when he rivered his 4! Aces and Kings were getting cracked all the time. I don't care what the books say this kind of game is tough to beat. Not unbeatable just very tough. We both got killedin this game for 3 hours before we decided to leave. We lost 25 BB each at this game. My wife wound up leaving the daywith a small win. I suffered my first big setback in awhile. Oh well can't win everytime. We may give the $20-40 gameanother go this weekend. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Monday, December 25, 2006

Happy Holidays.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Some Online Play.

Been playing some $3-6 on Fulltilt this week. Nothing exciting to report. Winning like 3BB per hour. The players seamto be getting worse and worse. The Party players have all migrated over to Stars and Fulltilt. I am waiting for a goodreload bonus to put some money onto Stars and see how bad their $3-6 players are. As I remember from the past they havebeen pretty terrible. May go down to the Borgata this weekend, almost done with Christmas shopping. I think this is theweekend we both are going to give $20-40 a try. I have been hesitent being the swings will probably be very large. I amnot crazy about possibly losing $1000 in a day. We both have had so much success at $10-20 so we really should try to goto the next level. Wish they had $10-20 with a Kill or a $15-30 game. This would be like a half step up to $20-40. Iwill post how we both did on Sunday. That's it for today. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Saturday, December 16, 2006

$10-20 LHE at Foxwoods.

Just woke up and had some breakfast. Played at Foxwoods until late last night. Let me tell you the $10-20 games here are even softer then at the Borgata! My wife and I won a ton of money after 4 hours of play.(Over 40BB!) I will post some interesting hands tomorrow, when I have a chance. People are way too over-agressive in this game. They over value top pait big time! My wife flopped 2 sets and top pair was raising her both times. That's it for today. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Friday, December 15, 2006

Online SNGs.

Warning this post is full of complaining and bad beats. Remove all children and anyone who is sick of hearing aboutbad loses out of the room. I am running so bad at sit and gos lately it's not funny. I have come out of the money inthe last 12 SNGs straight. Worse I have bubbled in 10 of them! Keep getting my money in far ahead and still getsucked out on. Last night get all my money in with Kings against Jacks and of course turn is a jack. Another one pushwith middle stack with 8s from the small blind and A-10 o calls me and rives a ten. Playing Razz I raise all in on 4thwith A-6-7-8 and guy with J-K showing calls me. Get knocked out in 4th again! Enough complaining before those 12 sngsI finished in the money in 5 straight. Also I have been winning at $3-6 like 9 out of 10 nights. So it's not all bad. Just realize the variance of MTT and SNGs is much higher then playing live. At least for me it is. I keep readingall of these poker articles about how playing SNGs should reduce your swings. I totally disagree based on playing SNGsonline for the last 4 years. Enough venting for one day. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Thursday, December 14, 2006

A Great Read.

I made a great play in a $3-6 LHE on Fulltilt the other night. There are not many "Great" plays to be made at limit butthis one felt awesome. I was in the small blind with A-9o. An agressive player brought it in for a raise in the cutoffseat. The raise just felt like a blind steal. This particular player was always coming in for a raise when first in. Aplay that I like a lot on a relatively tight table, like the one we were playing on. Flop came down J-9-2 offsuit. Ichecked and he of course bet. I called and a King fell on the turn. I checked again and he insta-bet. This to me reallyfelt like a steal. I called and the river came with a queen. Not a good card for me. There was now 3 overcards on theboard and a ten made a straight. I checked and he bet again. Could he be bluffing a third time? I called and won thepot with my pair of nines. He proceeded to complain in the chat box, "How can you call me there?". I didn't say anythingto him back. I looked at the hand history and he had A-4 of diamonds! I believe I played this hand perfectly. If I betor raised at anytime in this hand he would have folded. Plus if I was beat I would have lost more money. I have wroteabout this before, the 3 barrel bluff in limit holdem rarely works. I hope I get to play with this same person againtonight. I will look for him for sure. May play some $10-20 at Foxwoods this weekend. Look for a report about it onSunday. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Another night of $3-6 on FullTilt.

Not much new to report here. Another night playing against the $3-6 donkfish on Fulltilt. Just another night making 5BB per hour. Only problem is I only played for 2 hours. Being I have a job I am only able to do hit n runs everynight. I need to test out my results by putting in an 8 hour session and seeing if I still make 5 BB an hour. I highly doubtthat will happen! Also want to move up to $5-10 and see how that works out. From the times I have played it appears tobe really soft. I just don't know if I am ready for the swings of the higher game. Once I build up my bankroll I willtry it out. The holidays are approaching so it doesn't look like we will be making any more Borgata trips anytime soon. It's a shame being my wife and I both have been crushing the $10-20 there. Oh well, happy holiday shopping everyone. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Click my Fulltilt banners above to play with the Donkfish at $3-6 :-).

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

$3-6 LHE on FullTilt.

Been playing a lot of $3-6 over at FullTilt. To say the least the play there has turned really weak! I think many ofthe Party-Donkfish have swam over to Fulltilt. I can't believe how bad the play is over there now. Last night I 3 betpre-flop with pocket queens. A donkfish capped it with pocket 8s. Flop came down J-10-2 offsuit. I bet and he raisedme. I called and check called the King on the turn. River brought an eight, I check called. Couldn't put him on pocketeights! Lost a big pot there. Had a few more badbeats before the night was out. Still managed to pull out a small win,but the variance was huge. Can't wait to play some more tonight. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Another Great $10-20 game at the Borgata.

As usual I can't say enough about how great it is playing at the Borgata on weekends. My wife and I both had a very good weekend there. I went on a rush and won 30 BB in an hour! We played against the same players from previous weeks. This was great being I had a good idea how most of them played. I made a great read in one hand. I had played against this LAG player many times before. He is capable on betting on every street with anything. He almost always bets his missed draws. I had 9-7d in the big blind. He brought it in for a raise and 3 of us saw the flop. It came J-7-2 with 2 diamonds. A good flop for me. He bet, the middle played folded and I called. The turn brought an off suit 10. After I checked he bet fast, as if he planned to bet no matter what came. I decided to check raise. The river brought a blank and I checked my pair of sevens thinking he would check behind me. He insta-bet again. I was thinking of folding but something about the way he bet screamed of a missed draw. I called and he turned over q-4 of diamonds for queen high. I turned over my pair of sevens and took down a nice pot. He shook his head with a look on his face like "How did you call there?". I felt really good about my play but thankfully a diamond didn't come after all! That's it for now. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Friday, December 08, 2006

Low Limit is Brutal.

I was playing some LHE online last night with missed results. I am convinced it's harder to win at 1-2/2-4 then at 3-6/5-10. For one thing the rake is worse on a percentage wise, at the lower levels. Also the schooling effect seams totake center stage at the lower limits. Example I had queens last night and brought it in for a raise. 6 people saw theflop with me! Queens are great heads up or against 2 players. Against 6 and you almost have to hit a queen or astraight to win the pot. At 3-6 I would have raised and 1 person with like A-J would have called. As long as nothingscary comes out I can bet the hand to the river and win a decent pot. Another hand I raised with A-J suited, 5 peoplesaw a flop of 6-7-J offsuit. Guy before me bets and I raise. Everyone folds but original bettor who 3 bets me. I calland just intend to call him down. He fires at every street to catch runner-runner clubs to beat me. He had A-K ofclubs. Caught nothing on the flop but keep betting. I know it sounds like I am complaining about bad beats but it'sbrutal playing those lower limits. I guess I am just venting. In the long run you want donkeys pushing with nothing butdominated overcards. You will make money that way over time. It just hurts so bad when they keep sucking out! That'sit for today. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Borgata SNG

Going to the Borgata this weekend. Best Poker room on the east coast, by far. I actually consider it one of the bestrooms in the whole country, world for that matter. We have played Sit N Gos there before. They have a good structure,you get some bang for your buck. This weekend we will play in their $250+20 SNG. I believe you get T5000 chips with 25minute blinds. (Pays 3 places.) This structure is even better then many I play online. Also at this level the juiceisn't prohibitive, less then 10%. I have played in the smaller ones and the juice kills you. The $50+15 has 30% juice,plus tip! How can you beat that. On another note I may finally play some $20-40. I am just scared that a bad run willbe very costly. I know I can compete at that level. Many of the regular $10-20 players, I have beat, play $20-40 also. Wish us luck this weekend. Should have some good news to report on Sunday. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Moving up in stakes.

Been playing a lot of $3-6 LHE on FullTilt these days. Have been running well, around 3 BB per hour. I have venturedinto playing a little $5-10. It seams to me the $5-10 players are worse then the $3-6!. I have noticed the same trendat $2-4. Can't seam to get any momentum going when playing $2-4. I really should put more time in at $5-10 but I amaffraid the swings will bust my meager bankroll. Being the players seam worse at $5-10 I will try playing it this week. Hmm..I wonder how the $10-20 online players are? I real life I have been slowly moving up in stakes, need to do the sameonline. We should always test ourselves and play the higher stakes. Otherwise will get stuck grinding it out forever. I think that is the point to this post. Always strive to move up, don't get stuck in a rutt. That's it for today. Goodluck at the tables. TonyP.S. - Please click on the Fulltilt links at the top or bottom of this BLOG. (I need to pay the bills also :-).) Notefor non-US players Fulltilt has an extra 20% bonus from now to the end of the year for you all.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Weekend Report.

No poker to report from this weekends trip. We planned on playing some $10-20 at Foxwoods but we got sidetracked. Wewent up to Newport Rhode Island for the weekend. Wound up staying there longer then we planned. If you ever get up therego on the cliff walk behind the Newport Mansions. It's a great walk on the cliffs along the Atlantic Ocean. Plus youhave a view into all the yards of the famous early 20th century mansions of Newport. I would recommend taking some of theMansion's tours also. It's unreal how some of the historic rich of this country lived. These mansions were their summerhomes! Next weekend we are planning to make another trip to the Borgata. May give some $20-40 a try. At the very leastwill plan 10 hours of $10-20. Look for reports to follow our trip. Good luck at the tables. Tony